Tag Archives for Social Media

I have preached here before on the importance of having an author’s platform which includes online and in real life. But how many do? How many feel it is a good idea but never get around to it? From my experience from the people in my writing circle in this area very few do regardless of the reasons.

But to the few that do how often do you go back and check your sites?I try to do a health check on my various sites every three months. Do I do it? No, not always. But it is a vital tool in your kit to not only have a platform but a healthy one.

You might not have updated your books. You might have a different bio that you are using now. You might not like the style or theme you are using and want a change. You just might want something different since it is a new year.

But that is not the only reason. If you don’t keep your platform healthy and active that can affect your presence. How many times have you gone to a site and see that it is outdated? Or worse that it has no new information to share with you? Perhaps you been to a site and see that links or videos are no longer working. Maybe there was a glitch in the system and your site now is not how you had it.

Yes, life has a way of getting in the way that can slow us down. My family just suffered a huge emotional lost and I have not been around. But as I made my rounds I fixed things here and there, spruce up other things and showed I was active.

It is time-consuming to go over all of our author’s platform but it is well worth it for you, your books and your brand.

In keeping up with social media today’s post is about having your own blog. This is for the ones who have not yet started and are uncertain about what to do. But it is also for the new people on board with this platform

When I first decided to start my blog I went back and forth for two months due to pure fear of failing at this which would impact my writing. Visiting the various sites that host blogs I came to WordPress primarily due to it being free. But after checking out the other sites this one was just as up to date with how to decorate one’s wall. Plus it was really easy to put together.

The hardest thing was to come up with THE name. That will stop people in their tracks. My theme has always been two-fold. The first being where I am from which is New England. The second the word muse and all that comes with it if you know about the nine muses of Greek mythology. So I just combine the two. Now what?

I set my page to private as I worked around the widgets, themes, colors and pictures trying to find the right fit for me. The fact this was an option gave me free rein to play around for as long as it took until I felt satisfied with what I had.

You have to decide what the overall theme will be for your website. Will it be strictly for writing and promoting your brand or will it be a combination of both. I do the combo for that what works for me. Some people have web pages for each book they write and that is fine, what works for you works for you. My preference is to keep it simple with just one. But with that you have to be concise and not clutter your page with items that don’t lift you up. My posts varies from writings and the peril that goes with it to goofy light fun reads. I hope they come out fun anyway.

When I first started I had all the widgets out there in full force for people to check me out. As a new writer trying to make it this is not such a good idea. Clutter is not your friend. So I started cutting back. The parts that should be on your page is how people can reach you. For example if you have a Facebook page or Twitter account these should be up front and near the top. Also if you want people to subscribe to your blog it is a good idea to put this near the top as well. You want people to connect with you and placing it at the bottom some people may miss. Heck some people have told me they won’t bottom scrolling to the bottom of a page just to click like or subscribe. This is something we can ill afford.

If your subscription number is high or the amount of traffic is then by all means promote that. If you are new and just starting out and the numbers are low, you might want to wait until it has the wow factor.

How often do we post is up to us. Some people have a set amount per week and on certain days like clockwork. I like to change things up, while I will post twice a week it is never on the same day. Just another way we can personalize our author web page to how it suits us.

Part two of this post will be posted within the next few days. As always if you have any questions just ask.

You need one right? Sure you do. Some authors makes one for each book while others like me creates one that pertains to us as writers. How easy is it to do? Simple actually. If you already have a FB account then all one has to do is create a group.

It is as easy as filling in the dots. Before you start you might want to take a few minutes to figure out what you would like your page to be called. Do you want it primarily for you as an author or for each of your books. How would you describe yourself? What is the purpose of you creating this page? Are you wanting to use your real or pen name if you have one? Once that is all figured out it is time to begin at the link above. You can change your name of the page a few times. However once you have 25 likes the name you place in the box will be the name until the group is no longer active.

This is a good way like Twitter and other social medias to get your brand and yourself out there. When I first started 25 seemed like a heck of a lot but that is where family comes in and friends of family. Thanks to them I reached the magical number relatively fast. There is one thing that FB does not say out there in the open. If you like someone’s page using anything but your profile page then the like is not counted toward the overall count. Why? No one seems to know the answer to this. So if you are getting people to like your page or you theirs use your profile page not your FB fan page.

How can we get our likes to increase comes to networking. There are quite a few karma groups out there that it’s mere existence is to like other people’s pages, follow their author’s blogs, follow them on Twitter and the likes. Some people are happy to jump on this wagon and go for the ride. Others feel it is impersonal and rather go slow and steady. Whatever way works for you works for you. I dip into both pots. Why not I mean it is all about authors helping authors trying to support each other in a tough business of publication.

Since I have started my page the hits on my author’s blog has gone up and with a bang. People are talking about what I write there and are sharing it with each other. A win for me and for what I am trying to accomplish. You can find the karma groups on FB, Twitter and other media. I have gotten most of my likes from Twitter and FB groups. In fact I am now an admin for such a group that helps share the karma around. On FB it is called Author Karma Group.

It is not a sure hit, most people will follow some will not. This crosses all formats of social media. But in doing this you come across some pretty cool people who are willing to share with you what they have learned as I am trying to do here in my social media series. We are all here for each other, trying to help each other out like others have done for us. Some people are not into FB or creating pages for themselves and that is totally up to them. This is a tough business though an a little help goes a long way. And by doing this on FB it is a good start on getting your name out.